


Refuting Entropy

by asianscaper



Category: Star Trek: Picard
Genre: Character Study, Developing Relationship, Drabble Collection, Established Relationship, Eventual Romance, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:41:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 1,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23587810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asianscaper/pseuds/asianscaper
Summary: Raffi and Seven, and their adventures with the crew of La Sirena in 100-word drabbles.
Relationships: Raffi Musiker/Seven of Nine
Comments: 94
Kudos: 70





	1. Take the long way around

**Author's Note:**

> I really miss the old LJ communities set up for femslash drabble prompts and couldn't find any here on AO3 or Tumblr (well, if that doesn't show my age...) so I'll be posting them in this work. If you have a prompt, please feel free to send it over in the comments or in a Tumblr ask.
> 
> Each drabble is a stand-alone fic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Take the long way around

Seven appraised the woman behind her, slowing down so that Raffi could catch up.

Raffi continued her tirade, “Why in _Cradol’s_ name are we going through here? Transporters were invented for a reason.”

Seven let her continue ahead, watching the sway of Raffi’s hips, barely listening to Raffi denounce the merits of a walk. The rocky, overgrown path opened to the edge of a cliff and to a vista famous in Coppelius. Seven caught the most treasured of sounds yet: a gasp.

Raffi turned, her smile luminous. “You sneaky bastard.”

Grinning, Seven reached into her pack for a blanket. “Indeed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Cradol - Fate as part of Romulan religion
> 
> I'm open for drabble prompts! Please feel free to leave one in the comments or at my Tumblr. Thanks!


	2. Can you shut up for five minutes, please?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Can you shut up for five minutes, please???

Everyone beat a hasty retreat, J-L warning her with a look as she stepped on the bridge.

Rios’ face was red. He was arguing with his navigational hologram and Enoch’s brogue dripped with sullen condescension.

Seven sat at her panel, cross-legged and leaning back in bemused silence, watching as Rios rationalised a navigational decision.

Finally, Seven’s deep voice cut in, “You’re digging yourself a hole, Rios. I think Enoch’s right.”

Rios’ lips promptly shut, his eyes darting to Raffi in a silent appeal for allyship.

“Don’t look at me, hotshot. She shuts me up good most days as it is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm open for drabble prompts! Please feel free to leave one in the comments or at my Tumblr. Thanks!


	3. He’s been gone for quite a while

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: He’s been gone for quite a while

The taste of ozone and the prickle of electricity were constant. She glanced outside, squinting as jagged lightning pierced into large, heaving clouds.

“J-L really shouldn’t treat Elnor like a glorified messenger,” Raffi said, starting to pace.

Her companion pulled at her wrist. Raffi stopped and watched the worry in Seven’s eyes.

Seven was carefully neutral. “He’ll be fine.”

“That’s a hell of a storm out there, Seven.”

“I know but it isn’t just honour that drives him.”

Elnor chose that moment to burst in. They considered him with relief. The young Romulan reminded them too much of their sons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm open for drabble prompts! Please feel free to leave one in the comments or at my Tumblr. Thanks!


	4. I can’t see anything

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: I can’t see anything

Their foray into this archeological find was now a problem. The tricorders weren’t working.

Seven could smell fear start to permeate in the darkness but her only distraction was struggling for air a few paces ahead of her.

She hurried to the front of the away party.

She could sense Raffi’s heartbeat, jittery and loud. Her breath trembled. She put a hand on Raffi’s back and felt some of the tension drain from Raffi’s body.

“Another fine mess J-L’s gotten us into,” Raffi murmured.

“I’m fine if it’s with you.”

She felt Raffi’s smile through the space between their bodies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm open for drabble prompts! Please feel free to leave one in the comments or at my Tumblr. Thanks!


	5. Cooking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Regionalpancake, this one's for you.
> 
> Prompt: Cooking

A holodeck was an exorbitant addition to a freighter. When Seven asked to meet at Picard’s estate in La Barre, Raffi brought a bottle of wine.

Raffi found her in the kitchen, finishing a batch of strawberry tarts. Her shirt was covered in flour, hair in a loose ponytail.

“Alright, what’s this about?”

Seven eyed the bottle of Chateau Picard. “You beat me to it,” Seven breathed. “I didn’t expect you to give me one of your more treasured possessions.”

“Oh, honey. You’re worth every bottle of ‘86.”

“And you’re worth every good memory Annika ever had as a child.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm open for drabble prompts! Please feel free to leave one in the comments or at my Tumblr. Thanks!


	6. Temperature

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The second prompt for Regionalpancake, who inspires with her fic.
> 
> Prompt: Temperature

Raffi woke from a troubled sleep, calmed by Seven’s touch and the small smile on her lips. A long and haunted past notched deep lines into Seven’s forehead, tightening against her implant.

Raffi curbed the temptation to touch.

The next time she woke, her back was pressed against Seven’s front, sun-like heat against her shoulders.

“Are you okay?” Seven murmured.

“You’re...very warm.”

Seven buried her face against Raffi’s neck. “Good.”

The next morning brought with it a considerable dip in temperature. Seven had left to pilot the ship and Raffi missed the glowing heat of someone who cared, deeply.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm open for drabble prompts! Please feel free to leave one in the comments or at my Tumblr. Thanks!


	7. Restless

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Regionalpancake's third prompt: Restless
> 
> Again, thank you for the lovely comments. They keep me going :)

Rios glared at her from his chair. “Raffi, I swear, if you don’t sit down, I’m going to completely lose it.”

Elnor’s voice cracked, “Don’t listen to him. I’m worried too.”

Jurati inhaled sharply. They turned their attention to the main screen. Picard was gesticulating wildly at two disgruntled Andorians. Seven’s hand inched towards her phaser.

_ Have faith. She can handle this. _

“You aren’t usually this worried about Picard,” Elnor remarked.

“It’s not J-L I’m worried about.”

Elnor frowned before realisation dawned on his face. “ _ Oh. _ ”

“Yes. Now, can we please make sure my girlfriend gets back in one piece?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm open for drabble prompts! Please feel free to leave one in the comments or at my Tumblr. Thanks!


	8. Can I be of assistance?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To ralst. I will always be very, very grateful for the safe spaces you've created on the internet for us, especially when we had none. Thank you.
> 
> Prompt: Can I be of assistance?

“She’s being a stubborn shit.” Rios slammed the spanner against the console.

Picard sighed. “She obviously doesn’t want a break.”

Raffi briskly walked to engineering. Enoch was keeping his distance, criticism and concern playing on his face.

Raffi put a hand on Seven’s shoulder. "I need you to let me help you."

"I'm not sure I can do that."

"Baby, please."

Seven swallowed, standing. “Fine.”

“Go for a walk. It’ll clear your head.”

Seven’s nod was mechanical. She stomped out.

The ENH looked shocked. “If all it took was calling you in…”

“Not usually but she’s learning. We all are.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm open for drabble prompts! Please feel free to leave one in the comments or at my Tumblr. Thanks!


	9. The floor is lava

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To seven-loves-raffi (love the handle!). Prompt: The floor is lava.
> 
> *wrings hands* I'm so sorry it turned into angst!

Elnor was skittish from across the chasm. Beside her, Raffi’s breath quickened.

“Elnor!”

His gaze shot up to Seven's, his frightened face glowing orange as molten rock ascended.

“Kid, just jump!”

Desperation tightened her throat. She had lost so many in her care: Icheb, countless Rangers, the xB’s flung into space.

This was not a time for doubt.

"Trust me," she called. "You can do this."

Elnor's expression hardened. Just like Icheb's when faced with an impossible puzzle. 

A similar shadow of recollection crossed Raffi's features. Seven knew then that neither of them could ever stand this loss.

Elnor jumped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm open for drabble prompts! Please feel free to leave one in the comments or at my Tumblr. Thanks!


	10. Stars

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To leilansdream. Thank you for the lovely prompt: "Something to do about STARS. May include star gazing or a reference to stars or a figurative parrallel or a poem about them, etc. How does looking at the stars make you feel? Write something based from that feeling. :)"

Shore leave was a vast, alien meadow. Above, the _La Sirena_ flickered across the expansive night sky, nimble.

“All my life I travelled the stars. I rarely ever looked at them from the ground.” Seven settled fully into the grass. 

They savoured the non-recycled air, moist earth and crushed green.

“I had the opposite experience.” At Seven’s quiet inquiry, Raffi clarified, “Vasquez Rocks.”

Whatever possessed Seven to invite her to a quiet interlude like this, Raffi was grateful.

She turned to thank her companion only to find that somehow, in her presence, Seven had felt safe enough to fall asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm open for drabble prompts! Please feel free to leave one in the comments or at my Tumblr. Thanks!


	11. Harmony

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To Jadyn. Prompt: Harmony

_La Sirena_ shuddered violently.

Rios sounded frantic. “Raffi, Seven, talk to me.”

Seven’s movements were efficient, belying the fear in her stomach as she watched the looming event horizon devour a bright and all-too-near accretion disk. She caught Raffi's gaze.

“Divert all power from the shields to the engines,” Raffi said.

“We’re going to fall apart!” Rios exclaimed.

Seven immediately complied. Sparks spewed from the bulkhead. Raffi flung them into warp and away from the singularity.

In the shocked silence that followed, Rios breathed,“I know you ladies trust each other implicitly but can you warn a guy next time?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not quite the harmony Rios would've envisioned, hehe.
> 
> I'm open for drabble prompts! Please feel free to leave one in the comments or at my Tumblr. Thanks!


	12. Not so fast. Alone. Code. Spell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't BELIEVE the lot of you gave me four separate prompts all in one go. So now, you ALL get a short story :D
> 
> To Regionalpancake, Paperback_Head, spritznar, and LeilansDream. Your wonderful prompts in four, 100-word parts: 1) Not so fast, 2) Alone, 3) Code, and 4) Spell.

Seven slung bags over her shoulders and back --rations, weapons, and camping gear.

Picking up the phaser rifle from its perch, she watched the bay doors open. The deafening wind and lightning of Storm’s End that had forced a planetary landing gusted into the holding bay.

Before Seven could wrap a scarf around her face and put on her goggles, her communicator chirped. She acknowledged with a clipped, “Go ahead.”

“Not so fast.” It was Raffi’s voice in her ear, then Raffi’s hands turning her backwards, and then Raffi’s soft lips that stole Seven’s breath away. “Take care out there.”

  
  


* * *

Sweat crawled over Seven’s white knuckles as they gripped the phaser rifle like a talisman. It had been six days crawling in dirt and hiding in the deep tunnels. Five since she had to abandon her supplies.

“Seven to _La Sirena_.” Four words she repeated over and over as her role from hunter suddenly turned to hunted.

“Seven to Raffi?” Three words under her breath like a prayer, with all the desperation she had been trying to repress. Then, “Fucking storms,” two for cruel fate.

Suddenly, her communicator erupted with one, “Seven!”

Seven sighed. Hope that finally, she wasn’t alone.

* * *

Exhaustion and hunger were gutting her lungs of air and her limbs of any strength, but her heart was swelling as Raffi’s patient coaching flooded her hearing.

“Did you get all that?”

“Barely,” Seven admitted, looking up at Picard’s peaceful visage, floating in clear suspension fluid.

“Seven, concentrate. We need to get J-L out of there.” A long pause. “And I need you to come home.”

The plea galvanized her just as insistent chittering began to echo from the closest tunnel. She punched in the code for the release.

Fluid drained from the chamber and Picard was in her arms.

* * *

The muted wail of a guitar riff echoed across the mess hall.

Raffi smiled at Seven, coy and inviting as she offered a hand. Gingerly getting to her feet, Seven took it, her face softening with fondness and the ache of six days on a planet hunted by insectoids nearly forgotten.

A few of their friends watched from a distance as Seven accepted Raffi’s embrace and they danced slowly, despite their audience.

“A spell has been cast,” Rios said.

“You can trick the mind, even the heart,” Jean-luc said before indicating the two with a nod. “But never the soul.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Full credit to Nikki Jefford's Entangled for Picard's ending quote: "Love is a more powerful force than magic. You can trick the mind and even the heart, but never the soul. When a person is not free to love with their soul, that is not love and that is why a love spell can never truly work."
> 
> I'm open for drabble prompts! Please feel free to leave one in the comments or at my Tumblr. Thanks!


	13. 0300 hours?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus, 2021 arrives and I'm catching up on my prompts. Huzzah!
> 
> To RegionalPancake. Prompt: 0300 hours?!

Raffi took her seat at the ops station, reading the wall of information on her screen.

“Not to question your hours,” Raffi said, yawning, “but it’s 0300.”

Seven gave her a pointed look. Raffi came to a realisation, then chuckled to herself. “I’m one to talk, huh.”

Seven didn’t reply but with a flick of her wrist, she’d sent a message to Raffi’s console.

“Oh,” Raffi said.

Seven grinned at her, entirely too confident.

“Is it  _ really _ the time to ask me on a date?”

“There’s a singularity just a few parsecs away.”

Raffi laughed. “Ok, smart-ass, set a course.”


	14. Celebration

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To RegionalPancake. Prompt: Celebration.

“You opening that?”

Rios looked up at Seven who joined him, uninvited. She tilted her head in inquiry and he waved his consent. She opened the bottle, took a whiff, and nodded her approval. Rios could smell a heady perfume --honey, butterscotch, and vanilla.

“What are we celebrating?”

“Another year alive,” Rios said, matter-of-fact.

“I see.”

“A good celebration as any,” Raffi interjected, arriving with three glasses. “Happy birthday, Cris. You didn’t have to celebrate this one alone.”

“Kinda used to it.”

“Well,” Raffi grinned as she poured them each a dram, “better get used to having us around then.”


	15. Rock

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To LeilansDream. Prompt: Rock.

_ It was a stupid, little  **rock** , _ Raffi thought, glaring at the lightless bulkheads overhead and the flotsam hovering around her.  _ La Sirena _ had lost power 30 minutes after its discovery.

“The dilithium crystals’ molecular structures have started to change,” Seven informed her.

“Dammit!” Raffi sighed, “Well, I’m glad you’re the one I’m stuck with.”

Seven grinned behind the headlights of her helmet.

“We’ll be out of the woods soon.”

“Maybe.”

“Not maybe,” Seven insisted, a hand over hers. Even if they were separated by layers of synthetic fibre, she could feel Seven’s reassurance, unflagging.

Her rock in a tumultuous sea.


End file.
